Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
Spring is just around the corner. Will you be ready when it arrives? Are your gardening plans taking shape? There’s no need to face the daunting task alone: Take advantage of the Garden’s expert resources for plant information and gardening advice.
Spend tomorrow, March 7, learning about spring preparation—fine-tuning your soil, starting plants from seed, pruning, and more—during an all-day immersion, Spring Fever Saturday. This is just one of the many fabulous Continuing Education classes and workshops offered throughout the year.
Attend one or all of the onsite demonstrations (free with Garden admission) offered each week in the Home Gardening Center.
Explore the wealth of ideas, recommendations, and guidance offered on our Home Gardening Online Web pages.
Refer to our Monthly Gardening Calendar to learn which garden chores to tend to each month.
Search through the top seasonal plant picks in our Recommended Plants database.
E-mail the Garden’s Plant Information Specialists with specific gardening questions such as when to prune your trees and shrubs, and which species to choose for a hedge.
Read the many tips and how-to information presented such as how to keep deer away, downsize your lawn, or attract butterflies.
Stroll the grounds and soak up inspiration from the 50 gardens and living collections. Or, if you’re looking for historical information and a warm place on a cold day to read about gardens and dream, peruse the infinite collection of botanical books in the unrivaled LuEsther T. Mertz Library.
Beef up your own home gardening library with a visit to Shop in the Garden, in person or online, which recently was called “the most intelligently run shop for garden books in America,” by the Financial Times of London.
Include the kids. The Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden opens for spring in a few weeks with new display gardens, plant varieties, programs and more.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
I bumped into Peter Kukielski, Curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, the other day in the hallway—we don’t often see Peter indoors. It was one of the coldest days of the year and Peter’s cheeks were rosy—but so was his outlook for a new rendition of the Rose Garden.
Peter has been working on a multi-year dream to transform his charge into the world’s largest chemically-free, low-maintenance rose garden. A tall order, for sure, since roses have a reputation of being among the most chemically-dependent flowers in existence.
But during these months when our Rose Garden is in its winter stupor, Peter has been scouring the world (virtually, not physically) for the finest disease-resistant varieties in a major step to the conversion. Not only did he find what he was looking for, but all the growers donated the plants. Beginning in March, Peter will oversee the planting of 880 new, hardy roses to replace the more than 1,100 high-maintenance roses removed last fall, about one-third of the Rose Garden’s inventory. The new varieties bloom all season long and are easy to care for.
Peter’s passion for the project, his extensive expertise, and his willingness to experiment add up to an interesting season to come for the Rose Garden. Stay tuned for the announcement of its reopening this spring and be sure to come and visit.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden. Charles Darwin (shown in bronze in a sculpture in the Rare Book Room) was born on this day in 1809, sharing the exact same birthday as Abraham Lincoln—though a world away in England.
Last spring the Botanical Garden celebrated his work with plants in the Garden-wide exhibition Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure as a lead-in to this bicentennial year, which also marks the 150th anniversary of his groundbreaking book. (We can’t tell you the name of it here, because it’s one of the questions in the short quiz below).
During the show, some of the world’s leading Darwin experts had gathered to discuss the far-reaching legacy of Charles Darwin and the implications of his thinking for science and society today in a special two-part symposium, Darwin: 21st-Century Perspectives, hosted by the Garden and the American Museum of Natural History, and which you can hear by clicking here.
If you first need a Darwin 101 refresher before listening to these scholars, test yourself with these few questions. The answers are provided after the jump.
Or, if you want to learn about Darwin in song, check out this snippet taped partly in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory recently of live performer and Darwin scholar Richard Milner. Milner performed his Charles Darwin: Live & In Concert at the Botanical Garden during last year’s exhibition and was featured this week in The New York Times.
And now for the quiz…
1. Darwin sailed to the Galápagos on a ship named…
a. Sundew
b. Retriever
c. Beagle
d. Albatross
2. Darwin began his formal studies in botany at…
a. Oxford
b. Cambridge
c. Glasgow
d. Edinburgh
3. How many children did Darwin have?
a. 10
b. 7
c. 3
d. None
4. Darwin is known as the founder of which famous theory?
a. Relativity
b. Big Bang
c. Quantum Mechanics
d. Evolution by Natural Selection
5. What was the title of Darwin’s book that changed the way scientists view all life?
a. Inherit the Wind
b. The World As I See It
c. Origin of Species
d. The Diversity of Life
Much to Do Here, Even at this Time of Year—Surprised? Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden. Yes, it’s below freezing outside. Yes, most plants are dormant and bedded under a blanket of snow. Yes, it’s a great time to come to The New York Botanical Garden with fresh eyes to take in the standing and specialty exhibits you haven’t yet seen.
Surprise your friends, kids, or lover by suggesting a day at the Garden in winter. It may seem a little offbeat, but what a treat it can be, because there is so much to do here.
For the snuggly set: Don’t like the cold? Warm up inside the glasshouse galleries of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for an ecotour around the globe in A World of Plants. Use the self-guided audio tour, or experience the exhibit with a docent tour. Later, stop at one of the Garden’s Cafes for soup, lunch, and hot beverages, and duck into Shop in the Garden to select a needed gift or a good gardening book to cozy up with.
For the procrastinators and the “let’s do it again” folks: Whether you still haven’t seen Moore in America or want to see it again in a different season, these are the final days of the largest outdoor exhibit of sculptor Henry Moore’s works ever presented in a single venue in America.
For the curious: Discover what the Botanical Garden’s scientists are researching and understanding worldwide in the ongoing exhibit Plants and Fungi: Ten Current Research Stories. In fact, Garden scientist Dr. Amy Litt will be giving a talk in the gallery on Saturday, February 7, at 1 p.m.
For the family: Get hands-on with fun activities that explore the fascinating life and accomplishments of the man who helped peanut, soybean, and sweet potato farmers in The Life and Work of George Washington Carver.
For the browser: Spend time perusing the world-renowned collection of botanical books in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library. You will want to visit again and again—the Library holds more than 1 million items spanning 10 centuries.
For the photography enthusiast: View the vibrant color portraits of heirloom tomatoes by Victor Schrager on exhibit—a sampling of the amazing 500 varieties grown every year in the garden of acclaimed food writer Amy Goldman—in The Heirloom Tomato. Bring your camera and take your own fantastic images of the shapes of trees, the Garden’s snow-covered landscape, and the tropical plants in the Conservatory (and share them with us on Flickr).
For the lifelong learner: Cultivate yourself by attending one of the many course offerings of the Continuing Education department. In fact, you can start by signing up for the Special Saturday, all about shade gardening, to be held tomorrow, February 7.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden. What a glorious sight to come upon: the beautiful orchids displayed in the Orchid Rotunda on the second floor of the Library Building. Brilliant hues, fantastic shapes, lovely arrangements.
The continuous show of these colorful gems that brighten any gloomy day had been on hiatus since mid-April of 2008, when the display case was installed with the maquettes and found objects of sculptor Henry Moore in conjunction with the Moore in America exhibition across the Garden grounds.
Though Moore in America has been extended to March 15, the artist’s scale models, tools, and collection of bones, rocks, and other natural bits and pieces have been removed to make room, once again, for the spectacular, delicate orchids. And just in time. These magical flowers whet our appetite daily for the upcoming annual Orchid Show, which opens February 28 in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
In the meantime, on a cold, gray day—or any day—come marvel at this display, which is refreshed twice a week. It is sure to lift your spirits.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
As a kid growing up, just a few blocks from here, the only time I got to see model trains in action was occasionally during the holidays when the boy in the apartment across the hall would invite my three sisters and me to see—briefly and no touching allowed—his miniature landscape all set up with little people and trees and trains that could be glimpsed as they made their way around make-believe villages. I was younger and shorter and had to stand on tiptoe to try to get the full effect of this tabletop other world. Regardless, I always got a sense of something fun and magical happening.
My husband confirmed this. One of three boys and with a slew of neighborhood buddies, he talks of spending hours during the holidays watching and playing with model trains, moving around at will the tiny figures and buildings and ice rinks and track segments within the diminutive fake-snow-covered scenery.
Not until I was an adult did I have the chance to be immersed in the enchanting atmosphere that is so reminiscent of this childhood memory, thanks to the Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show. I’ve come back to see the show several times over the years and with family members both young and old.
There is something indescribable, something that makes your heart jump a beat, when you enter the Holiday Train Show and are immediately surrounded by twinkling lights, soft whistles, and tracks that wind around waterfalls and across overhead bridges and past magnificent replicas of New York landmarks. On closer inspection, you see that each of these 140 or so buildings is made from parts of plants! And as you bend down to investigate further, all of a sudden you glimpse a train approaching and stand back to watch the scene in awe. You look around and are beckoned by other vignettes; it keeps going. You are transported.
The Holiday Train Showhas gained wild popularity in its 17 years. Now that I work at the Garden, I have the benefit of seeing the show even during lunch breaks. My favorite time of day, though, is at dusk, when the show is especially charming and festive. This year the Garden will be open an extra hour on select days so you can enjoy the show well into the evening.
There is plenty to do, too, if you’d like to spend an entire day at the Garden: Gingerbread Adventures in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden; The Little Engine That Could™ puppet theater performance and a visit by Thomas the Tank Engine™ both later in the run; lunch and snacks at our two cafes, and holiday gift-getting at Shop in the Garden.
Tens of thousands of visitors have discovered the same, awed by the exquisite beauty of these meticulously cultivated chrysanthemums in a traditional Japanese art form never seen before on this scale outside Japan. “If the stock market has you blue, go to the exhibition and drink in the uplifting display,” wrote Bill Cunningham in The New York Times.
But hurry. The spectacular flower show and cultural exhibition comes to a close Sunday. For an extra special experience, you may want to come this evening from 6–8 p.m. for Kiku and Cocktails, when you can view the exhibition under lights and with the authentic ambiance of live Japanese musical performances.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
With the recent wet weather you may have noticed that mushrooms are, well, mushrooming—in moist areas of your garden, on a pile of mulch, in a nearby woodland.
Here at the Botanical Garden, from the end of June to the first frost you may see Dr. Roy Halling, Curator of Mycology, walking about the grounds after a significant rainfall in search of his favorite subject. He has dedicated his life’s work to studying mushrooms. “I want to know what they are, where they grow, and how they are related to each other.”
The casual observer can see about 40 to 50 different types of mushrooms at the Garden over the course of the season. Roy’s top three spots are Twin Lakes, the bottom of Azalea Way, and the Arthur and Janet Ross Conifer Arboretum. At the base of pines and oaks are the best places to look because of the symbiotic relationship between the roots of these trees and mushrooms.
Although, after almost 25 years on staff at the Garden, he knows where to look, he’s not always certain what he’ll find. “I search near Twin Lakes and used to find mushrooms there. The oak tree is still there, but there are different mushrooms now. The others either aren’t there or they’ve moved.”
Moved? Yes, mushrooms will travel—or actually not return and appear elsewhere—according to their nutrient needs.
Roy travels, too. He’s been to many parts of the world and has co-authored a guide to mushrooms of Costa Rica, but his specialty has been researching the fungi (the group to which mushrooms belong) of Australia and Southeast Asia. His current project, with a grant from the National Geographic Society, is to explore for and document the mushrooms on the world’s largest sand island, Fraser Island, north of Brisbane. Roy has found that fungi provide the nutrients for the survival of the rain forest that otherwise implausibly exists on this island.
Learn more about Roy and his work with mushrooms after the jump.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
